Dūrgā Devī
Category Archives: Home
Oxford councillors a fail…
Posted in Home
Mill Street benighted by building firms
Posted in Home
Tagged Gibbs Crescent, mill street, Oxford University, Said Business School, susanna pressel
I, Mike Magee, drink more tea than anyone else
Unlikely? We think so too.
Grizzled hack Mike Magee – that’s me – appears to have broken the world record for drinking tea.
In a shocking move, he is estimated to have drunk 128,000 cups of tea in 60 days.
According to Thames Water, my not so smart water meter clocked up the equivalent of 128,000 cups of tea or 437 showers or 400 baths in a 60 day period starting in February and running through March. Continue reading
Posted in Features, Gossip, Home
Tagged James Buckingham, Smart Meters, TEA, Thames Water
The Everywhere Girl
Let’s never forget the Everywhere Girl. Jen Kind is still everywhere if you search for the name on Giggle.♥
Facebook bans me, shock
Shri Narharinathji and Mike Magee
I received a message from Facebook saying I was blocked from the site because a post violated its policies. It didn’t say why I’d violated its policies. Yes there is such a thing as Fee Speech. It’s called Defacebook. ♣
Śiva smokes too much
A fiend of mine alerted me to a 1974 film called Har Har Mahadev – the whole thing is on Youtube – in Hindi. A part has English subtitles where Brahma and Vishnu seem to be suggesting Mahadeva smokes too much opium :) Here is the beloved Lata M singing about Shiva’s wedding to Parvati along with his lovely retinue. Pot, surely. ψ
Languages. Fonts. Sheesh
I have almost finished converting my website shivashakti.com to use diacritics. The Devanāgari alphabet using Sanskrit letters like क ल श अ आ and the rest is difficult although it is very logical. So some scholars over the past 120 years or so devised a system to transliterate the 51 letters into Roman script. Still, the original letters are very beautiful, I feel. I’ve managed to do this with the collaboration of a friend of mine. It’s not quite finished yet. ♥
Kenneth Grant’s letters to Mike Magee
Catalogue produced by Henrik Bogdan. He now has all the letters sent to me by Kenneth Grant, archived in his university. ⇓
Mike Magee collection of Kenneth Grant Correspondence__ Catalogue (1)
Gaṇapatyupaniṣat
Gaṇapatyupaniṣat
bhadraṃ karṇebhih – iti śāntih
[gaṇapatistutih]
oṃ laṃ namaste gaṇapataye || 1 ||
tvameva pratyakṣaṃ tattvamasi | tvameva kevalaṃ varta’si | tvameva kevalaṃ dhartā’si | tvameva kevalaṃ hartā’si | tvameva sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ brahmāsu | tvaṃ sākṣādātmā’si || 2 ||
nityamṛtaṃ vacmi | satyaṃ vacmi || 3 ||
ava tvaṃ mām | ava vaktāram | ava śrotāram | ava dātāram | avānūcānamava śiṣyam | ava purastāttāt | ava dakṣiṇāttāt | avapaścāttāt | avottarāttāt | ava cordhvāttāt | avādharāttāt |sarvato māṃ pāhi pāhi samantāt || 4 ||
[gaṇapateh sarvātmatayā stutih]
tvaṃ vāṅmayastvaṃ cinmayah | tvamānandamayastvaṃ brahmayah | tvaṃ saccidānandādvitīyo’si | tvaṃ pratykṣaṃ brahmāsi | tvaṃ jñānamayi vijñānamayo’si || 5 ||
sarvaṃ jagadidaṃ tvatto jāyate | sarvaṃ jagadidaṃ tvattastiṣṭti | sarvaṃ jagadidaṃ tvayi layameṣyati | sarvaṃ jagadidaṃ tvayi pratyeti | tvaṃ bhūmirāpo’nalo’nilo nabhah | tvaṃ catvāri vakparimitā padāni | tvaṃ guṇatrayātīh | tvaṃ dehatrayātih | tvaṃ kālatratātih | tvaṃ mūlādhāre sthito’si nityam | tvaṃ śaktitrayātmakah | tvaṃ yogino dhyāyanti nityam | tvaṃ brahmā tvaṃ viṣṇutvaṃ rudrastvamindrastvamagnistvaṃ vāyustvaṃ sūryastvaṃ candramāstvaṃ brahma bhūrbhuvah suvarom || 6 |
[gaṇapatimanuh]
gaṇādīn pūrvamuccārya varṇādiṃ tadanantaram |
anusvārah paratarah ardhendulasitaṃtathā ||
tāreṇ yuktametadeva manusvarūpam || 7 ||gakārah pūrvarūpam | akāro madhyamarūpam | anusvāraścantyarūpam | binduruttararūpam | nādah saṃdhānam | saṃhitā saṃdhih | seṣa gāneśi vidyā || 8 ||
gaṇaka ṛṣih | nṛcadgāyatrī cchandah | śrīmāhagāṇapatirdevatā | oṃ gaṇapataye namah || 9 ||
[gaṇapatigāyatrī]
ekadantāya vidmahe vaktratuṇḍaya dhīmahi | tanno dantih pracodayāt || 10 ||
[gaṇapatidhyānam]
ekadantaṃ caturhastaṃ pāśaṅkuśadhāriṇim |
abhayaṃ varadaṃ hastairbibhrānaṃ mūṣakadhvajam || 11 ||
raktalambodaraṃ śūrpasukarṇa raktavāsanam |
raktagandhānuliptāṅgaṃ raktapuṣpaih supūjitam || 12 ||
bhaktānukampinaṃ devaṃ jagatkāraṇa macyutam |
āvirbhūtaṃ ca sṛṣṭyādau prakṛteh puruṣāt param || 13 ||
evaṃ dhyāyati yo nityaṃ sa yogī yogināṃ varaḥ || 14 ||
[gaṇapatimālāmantrah]
namo vrātapataye gaṇapataye namah pramathapataye namaste’astu lambodarāyaikadantāya vighnavināśine śivasutāya varadamūrtaye namonamah || 15 ||
[vidyāpaṭhanaphalam]
etadatharvaśiro yo’dhīte sa brahmabhūyāya kalpate | sa sarvatah sukhmedhate | sa sarvavighnairna bādhyate | sa pañcamahāpatakopapātakāt pramcyate | sāyamadhīyāno divasakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ nāśayati | sāyaṃprātah prayuñjāno’pāpo bhavati | dharmārthakāmamokṣaṃ ca vindati || 16 ||
[vidyāsaṃpradānsniyamah]
idamatharvaśirṣamaśiṣyāya na deyam | yo yadi mohāddāsyati sa pāpīyān bhavati || 17 ||
[kāmyaprayogāh]
sahasrāvartanādyaṃ yaṃ kāmamadhīte taṃ tamanena sādhayet | anena gaṇapatimabhiṣiñcati sa vāgmī bhavati | caturthyāmanaśnan japati sa vidyāvān bhavati | ityatharvaṇavākyaṃ brahmādyācaraṇam vidyānn bibheti kadācaneti | yo dūrvāṅkurairyajati sa vaiśravaṇopamo bhavati | yo lājairyajati ds yaśovān bhavati sa medhāvān bhavati | yo modakasahasreṇa yajati sa vāñcchitaphalamavāpnoti | yah sājyasamibhiryati sa sarvaṃ labhate sa sarvaṃ labhate | aśṭau brāhmaṇān samyaggrāhayitvā sūryvarcasvī bhavati | sūryagrahaṇe mahānadyāṃ pratimāsamnidhau vā japtvā sa siddhamantro bhavati | mahāvighnāt pramucyate | mahādoṣāt pramucyate || 18 ||
[vidyādenaphalam]
sa sarvavidbhavati sa sarvavidbhavi ya evaṃ vedetyupaniṣat || 19 ||
Source: The Śaiva Upaniṣads, edited by A. Mahadeva Sastri, Adyar Library, 1950
Oxford Demos web site gets boost
JUST ACROSS from Mill Street and the river Thames is the West Oxford Democrats Club – it has no affiliation with any political party. Some wizard has revamped the web site very recently.
A PDF here has some information about the Island of Frogs, as the locals call it. The nearest bus stop is here.
If you look closely at the picture on its web page, there is a very famous bench, that was moved, obliquely, and reported on previously in the Oxford News. ♠